BENGALURU: The new Goods and Services Tax regime is attracting businesses from across sectors, with Infosys, HDFC Bank, audit firms and startups joining a long queue of applicants seeking to offer tax-filing solutions to as many as 8 million entities.

In the second phase of applications, accounting bigwigs KPMG and PwC as well as startups including Zoho, ClearTax and LegalRaasta have applied for licences to become GST Suvidha Providers (GSPs), as per a list released on Friday by the GST Network (GSTN), the nodal agency in charge of the technological infrastructure for GST.

Flipkart, too, has applied to be a GSP in what industry experts said could be a strategic move to get more sellers on board by offering tax solutions, ET had reported this week.

GST Network opened phase II of applications earlier this month. In the first phase, it shortlisted 34 companies including EY, Deloitte, Tata Consultancy Services and Reliance Corporate IT Park to become GSPs.

A company looking to become a GSP has to develop technology solution for taxpayers and other stakeholders to help connect to the GST systems for compliance, starting from registration of the entity to uploading of invoice details and filing returns.

As many as 160 companies applied to be GSPs in the second phase after GSTN recently lowered the entry criteria in terms of paid-up capital and turnover, which brought in applications from startups including Clear-Tax, Moglix, Paynear, Zopper and Eko.

Infosys, which is developing the technology for GSTN after winning a Rs 1,380-crore contract, is possibly looking at a GSP licence as a separate business channel, according to industry experts. Chennaibased Zoho recently announced the launch of its GST-compliant financial suite.HDFC Bank owns a stake in GSTN, which is listed as a not-forprofit, private company. While the Union and state governments together own 49 per cent equity in the agency, the rest is held by private financial institutions.

Several of the applicants are already working as Application Service Providers (ASPs) for the GST regime, so as to not lose out on the overall opportunity of GST tax-filing that is expected to see more than 2 billion invoices uploaded every month.

ASP refers to a company that does not have a GSP licence but can offer its own solutions. "We made an application (for a GSP licence) for hygiene and for ensuring we have the option to directly connect with the GSTN portal. However, we will continue to focus on our ASP solution," said Kunal Wadhwa, partner, indirect taxes, at PwC.

ClearTax gave a similar reasons for applying for a licence. "While we have been building an ASP solution, we have seen that not a lot of GSPs have strong solutions. Since a GSP is the support layer for GST solutions, we wanted to build resilience around that and hence applied for a GSP licence. This will also remove the pricing ambiguity for us in terms of what different GSPs charge from ASPs. However, we see the main value addition as an ASP offering customized solutions," ClearTax chief executive Archit Gupta said.

Not just private entities, public sector bodies such as CSC e-Governance Services, which runs the common service centres, have also applied. ET reported recently that 252,000 CSC digital kiosks will functions as centres to help merchants in GST filings.

Central Depository Services Ltd and National Securities Depository Ltd already have been selected as GSPs, and industry experts believe many ASPs will look to connect with these public sector GSPs.

While many medium and large enterprises are expected to opt for the best solutions in the market put forth by these GSPs, many small merchants are expected to flock to GSTN's own portal and offline app.

GSTN will issue a final list of GSPs after a demonstration of GST solutions by shortlisted companies, which is expected before the rollout of the new tax regime on July 1.